


I'll Knit You A Sweater

by DuchessKitty16



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: ASMR, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Football Analyst Louis, Knitter Harry, Librarian Harry, M/M, Masturbation, Mistaken Identity, Soulmate Search, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Sweater Paws Louis, Tattoos, weighted blankets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 23:19:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15673326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuchessKitty16/pseuds/DuchessKitty16
Summary: When people turn 18, two sayings or phrases appear as tattoos on their skin in black ink. The words on their left forearm are the words that represent their soulmate; your own personal words can appear as a tattoo anywhere else on your body. People looking for their soulmate are constantly trying to find their personal tattoo written on someone’s left arm. The tattoos can appear in any size, shape or font. The words of your soulmate on your left forearm will change color from black to blue or green when you are within a mile of them and will light up in gold when you are within 10 feet of them.Harry and Louis are just two strangers fated to be together but struggling to find their way to each other. Will they finally catch a break and find the soulmate they each crave?Featuring a little side Ziam and Nialee.





	I'll Knit You A Sweater

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mynameispiaivy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynameispiaivy/gifts).



> This was my first time writing a soulmate AU, although it's one of my favorite tropes to read in fiction. It was fun taking mynameispiaivy's prompt and just running with it. I hope they like what I did with their story idea.

 

**I'll Knit You A Sweater**

 

**PROLOGUE:**

When people turn 18, two sayings or phrases appear as tattoos on their skin in black ink. The words on their left forearm are the words that represent their soulmate; your own personal words can appear as a tattoo anywhere else on your body. The tattoos can appear in any size, shape or font. The words of your soulmate on your left forearm will change color from black to blue or green when you are within a mile of them and will light up in gold when you are within 10 feet of them. Once soulmates have bonded their arm tattoos remain a permanent gold outlined in blue-green. When your soulmate dies, the ink of your tattoo for them turns red. People looking for their soulmate are constantly trying to find their personal tattoo written on someone’s left arm; this can be a frustrating and sometimes daunting prospect.

 

**SPRING & SUMMER:**

Harry Styles was frequently described as quirky. Harry hated the word quirky. He hated the connotation of it, and the condescending tone it was often said with; he even hated the very sound of the word. But he was also self-aware enough to know that he could be decidedly an odd and peculiar person. Harry preferred the adjective “eccentric”, or even idiosyncratic. He liked old things. He dressed more like a man from the 1940s than the 21st century. He liked bands like Fleetwood Mac, ABBA, and The Little River Band; not Rihanna or Beyonce. His tastes were different but he knew who he was and what he wanted to be in this world and he was for the most part happy and comfortable with himself. If people didn’t “get” him, then that was their problem.

He had to remind himself of this as he stepped out of the Spitalfields Crypt Trust charity shop and headed towards to the tube station to go to work. Harry had just dropped off his latest donation of hand-knit jumpers that he had made over the last couple of months. The girl working the donation counter had been very rude towards Harry about not being able to pay him for his donations because the items were “homemade”. Getting money wasn’t even why he was donating the items. It may have been a common reason when he was a poor 19yr old uni student, but now Harry truly just donated the things to get them out of his house and off his hands. The attitude and judgement that he felt coming from the shop girl had been palpable. She’d rolled her eyes even as he stepped into the shop. It had almost made him not want to hand over the stack of five neatly folded jumpers that he put on the counter for her inspection. He was particularly fond of the lilac colored cotton jumper on the top of the pile that the shop girl now had in her grubby little hands as she inspected it...for what? Holes? Harry frowned at the girl and assured her that the items had never been worn; the rude girl didn’t need to know that Harry had repurposed most of the yarn from other garments and items that he no longer wanted or got for free from his mum and her friends. The shop girl heaved the pile of now messily balled up jumpers and dumped them on a table behind her, and then turned back around to see Harry’s shocked face and only grimaced at him and rudely asked him if there was anything else he wanted.  Harry supposed he’d have to choose a different charity shop to donate his items to from now on; maybe one up north near his mum.

Harry was an avid knitter; that’s at least what he called himself. His sister would say that he “stress knit” and that Harry was always stressed, and his roommate Niall would just complain about the fact that their flat was littered with various types of knitting needles holding various types of projects, and balls of yarn lying around. The result was that Harry produced several knitted objects a month. He completed on average around two or three jumpers a month, along with all numbers of scarves, hats, mittens and hand/wrist warmers. Those jumpers, scarves and hats that he couldn’t give as gifts or pawn off to his friends and family were typically donated to the East End Thrift store, and other charity shops in around his home and work. Harry was also known in the winter months to carry random knitted items with him that he would give to homeless people that he encountered on the street. He now headed towards the Mile End tube station to head to his job at the Barbican Library in central London.

A few hours later Harry closed out of the browser window where he had been reading the day’s “I Saw You” section in the London paper. Everyday, people submitted little notes describing a person who they saw somewhere in a crowd, on a Tube station platform, riding by on a bicycle, or anyone who they thought might be their soulmate. It was one of the most popular sections of the newspaper, and it had brought hundreds, maybe even thousands of soul bonds together. Harry made sure to read it every single day, even though part of him believed that it was silly and useless. He turned his computer monitor off and pulled the old and threadbare quilted bag that lay at his feet onto his lap and opened it up pulling out his latest knitting project and spread it out on his desk. His nan had made the bag and had used it to hold all of her little embroidery and crocheting in, until she had passed away last year, peacefully in her sleep at the age of 93. She had taught both Harry and Gemma how to knit and crochet, but it was only Harry who had stayed with it and become quite adept at both. Harry was constantly knitting and working on some sort of knitting project. And even if his sister Gemma liked to say that Harry’s stress knitting made him a weirdo, Harry never cared. Maybe it was true, but Harry liked to think of his knitting more as a form of self-care. He of course loved knitting jumpers the most, especially knitting from the top down; this was his favorite method and type of pattern to use because the jumper was knitted all as one piece with separate circular needles used for the sleeves and the body of the jumper, making it unnecessary to have to sew or crochet different pieces together which Harry found challenging and tedious. He admired his current project, a top-down jumper made from a lovely light pink angora yarn that he’d found in a shop in Camden a few months before. He planned on giving this sweater to Gemma for Christmas. He knew that she’d love it, even as she probably teased him about his silly hobby.

Harry had just finished one of the sleeves, deciding to make them short thinking Gemma would like that, when one of his favorite customers came up to his desk, his seeing-eye cane knocking against the wooden legs of his desk.

“Good afternoon Gerald, what can I do for you today?”

“Hello dear Harry. I was wondering if you’d do me a favor. I’m looking for a recipe for baklava and none of the braille cookbooks have a decent one. I was hoping you could look up the recipe in the Nigella Lawson cookbook that I know you own and record an audio for me of you going through the recipe and preparing it? I know last year when I asked you to do this for that Turducken thing that I promised I wouldn’t ask you again, but here I am proving myself a liar, asking for your help again.” Gerald gave him a big smile and Harry chuckled, finding it impossible to refuse the elderly charmer.

“Of course, Gerald. I’d be happy to. And Baklava is much easier than a Turducken I reckon. My roommate Niall will be much happier and willing to help me eat the results, or at least the leftovers from what I don’t bring here to work. I leave here in about 30 minutes and I was going to the Tesco anyway, so it won’t be too hard to add those extra ingredients.”

“Oh Harry, I didn’t mean that you had to do it tonight. I can be patient.”

“Tonight is actually best since I’m not working tomorrow.”

“Well thank you Harry. I really appreciate it. You know I love the way you take the time to really explain things.”

Harry smiled, happy that Gerald couldn’t see him blush. He often surmised that Gerald had a little crush on him. He was always complimenting Harry on his voice and telling Harry that he knew he must be very handsome. Harry knew that Gerald had been with his soulmate William for over 35 years before William had passed away from cancer about a decade before. Harry would sometimes catch a glimpse of Gerald’s soulbond tattoo with its red colored lettering and he would feel sad. Although he supposed that at least Gerald had been able to spend over three happy decades with his soulmate; that was better and more than Harry had. Harry came around his desk and escorted Gerald towards the exit of the library as they discussed the virtues of flavored oils in salad dressings.

**************************************************

Louis Tomlinson wanted the soulmate fantasy; someone fated just for him whom he could spend the rest of his adult life with, loving them dearly, taking care of them, raising a family with them and growing old together. He dreamed of large sunny houses with a garden and a football pitch in the back, lots of children running around and laughter, tons of laughter filling every corner. He religiously read the “I Saw You”s in the paper, and had spent some of the money his grandfather had left him to pay for a SoulMatch.com account, hoping that he could find his Prince...or Princess if that was what fate had for him. But Louis was also a pragmatic realist; he knew that only a rare handful of people actually got to have the fantasy.

Louis came from a family where his mom Jay had struggled for most of her life and never seemed to be able to catch a break. She’d had Louis young; 17 and scared to death with her illegitimate infant son in her arms. Her parents had married her off to the first man who would have her; a man she didn’t have a soul bond with but was willing to take her and Louis in and adopt her son as his own. Jay had four daughters with Mark, but their marriage struggled for years not only because of the stigma that not being soulbonded presented, but mainly because Mark was an insensitive and vindictive man and a mean drunk. Their divorce came as no surprise to most. Louis fiercely loved, and was very protective of his four younger sisters; Charlotte “Lottie” the oldest, Felicite “Fizzy”, and the two youngest, twins Daisy and Phoebe.

Jay didn’t find her soulmate until she was almost 40. She was on a plane coming back from a holiday in Spain with her five children and her best friend, Marcia. Jay had sort of given up hope of ever finding _the_ person. But as she walked through the San Pablo airport in Seville, her tattoo had turned a bright blue as soon as she had finished going through airport security. She gasped in surprise, bringing attention to her and her arm, and Marcia let out a joyful whoop. Jay was so excited, but she was also very wary; she’d had such bad luck with relationships, and she’d tried and failed more times than she cared to remember, trying to locate her soulmate. As her family and her best friend gathered around her in the airport trying to decide where they should go and what Jay should do, Louis could see the panic and indecision on his mother’s face. It seemed as if everyone had an opinion about what Jay should do next – Marcia thought she should go to the nearest information desk and have the airport put out an overhead announcement looking for someone whose soul bond tattoo was also lit up; Fizzy suggested that her mum should run from gate to gate to see if her tattoo changed from blue to gold, and then scream like crazy and see who reacted. Lottie encouraged her mum to go try to find her soulmate. Lottie reminded her that she was going to be getting on a plane in a little over an hour, and who knew where her soulmate might be heading; this could be her one and only chance to find them. Only Louis hesitated to chime in; he knew that if it were him, he’d be terrified. He thought Jay might be just as scared. Despite her family’s urging, Jay didn’t run off to look for her soulmate; she simply went to her gate and waited to board her plane home.

Jay may have ultimately felt fate steering her and telling her to wait because just a few minutes before their scheduled take-off, one last passenger ran onto the plane – out of breath, frazzled and a little sweaty, but still handsome beyond belief. Turns out this man was late getting on the plane because he had in fact been running from gate to gate throughout the airport, trying to track down the person who had caused his tattoo to turn a bright green. And as he stepped onto his flight his tattoo lit up, bright and glittery, just as Jay’s did. Jay’s eyes sought out and found his and everything else fell away. She lifted her arm to show the stranger the writing glowing gold and started to cry tears of joy and relief. The man, Dan Deakin, was a kind and charming man from Leeds who was in the process of moving his successful construction business to Manchester. He was enchanted by Jay immediately. The flight attendants moved people around so that Dan and Jay could sit together and generally fluttered around the soulbond couple, giving them champagne and chocolates to celebrate. Jay was initially timid about the fact that Dan was younger than her, but since he didn’t seem to think he’d become saddled with some old woman, she quickly got over that nonsense and allowed herself to fully enjoy her new-found happiness. Louis was happier than any proud son could be that his deserving mum had finally found a happy ending.

************************************************

Harry walked home through his Stepney Green neighborhood laden with two cloth tote bags of heavy groceries. One bag held his monthly watermelon purchase so it was particularly burdensome. He jogged up the front steps to his building happy to be home and excited to make Gerald’s baklava recording. In addition, Harry had decided to do a whole Greek theme for dinner with lamb kabobs and tabouleh. Niall would be especially grateful. He may not be the soulmate that Harry wished he was cooking for, but he was an enthusiastic taste tester and was always full of compliments that made Harry feel good.

Harry entered the apartment, closing the door softly with his hip so that he didn’t have to put either of the grocery bags down. Niall was stretched out on their large couch with the telly turned to some golf he but he seemed to be paying more attention to his phone than what was on the screen.

“Alright, Niall?”

“I’m good. And you?” Niall answered distractedly.

Harry started putting away the groceries except for the items that he needed for dinner and to make baklava; he had a guess as to who was keeping all of Niall’s attention in that moment.

“Hailee good? Tell her I say hi.” Harry smirked at Niall’s embarrassment at being called out. He looked back down at his phone as the blush creeped across his cheeks.

“I’ll tell her.”, Niall spoke out loud as he typed his next text to Hailee, “Harry is making his gross watermelon mush juice again because he is a huge weirdo.”

“Hey!” Harry barked, truly offended. “Tell Hailee that watermelon juice has lycopene which is a carotenoid compound that helps reduce the risks of some cancers, and citrulline, an amino acid that increases the nitric oxide levels in the body which help your blood vessels expand and lowers your blood pressure!”

Harry could see that Niall wasn’t typing anything. “Well? Did you tell her?”

“Harry I’m not going to type all of that rubbish to Hailee. Even if I could understand or remember half of what you just said. No one cares about that crap.” Niall rolled his eyes and went back to smiling at something on his phone.

Harry sighed. He sometimes worried a little about Niall because his best friend was in love with a girl who didn’t seem to love him back. It didn’t matter that they were true soulmates that had known about each other’s soul mark for practically their entire lives; you can’t force love. Hailee was quite a bit younger than Niall and still had a lot of life and things that she wanted to experience. Harry was afraid that she didn’t want to experience them with Niall, and that Hailee would soon break his friend’s fragile heart. He hoped that Niall would come out the other side in one piece and Harry was determined to make sure he could do everything in his power to help make sure that happened.

Harry finished cutting up the watermelon that he would juice in his VitaMix and store in the three special containers that he had for this purpose. Years ago Harry had read about the healing properties of watermelon juice on some yogi’s site and spent the sometimes fortune, every month to buy one and juice it. He kept some in the freezer to use throughout the month, and tried to drink a little each day. He didn’t care what anyone said, he thought as he turned the loud mixer on its highest setting, he truly believed that it was one of the reasons he was in such good health. Besides, it tasted wonderful, was a pretty pink color that Harry enjoyed, and supposedly made your cum taste great. Not that Harry had anyone in his life that could corroborate that fact. He stuck his tongue out at Niall even though his roommate and friend couldn’t see him. He put the watermelon juice containers in the fridge and started to set up everything to make the baklava recording for Gerald.

 

*******************************************************

Some people never meet their soulmates at all; for others, it could be years or decades before they found each other. At university Harry had met and befriended an Irish guitar player and singer named Niall who had inadvertently met his soulmate in a very bizarre way.

Niall’s parents didn’t have a soul bond. His mother Maura’s soulmate had passed away when she was 25 before she’d even had a chance to meet them, and when Niall’s father Bobby met Maura he said he knew immediately that Maura was the one for him, his true soul bond be damned. It was frowned upon but not forbidden to marry and have children with people who were not destined to be your soulmate. These partnerships experienced a lot more hate and discrimination in the earlier part of the 20th century and before than in present day, but they were still frowned upon. Forty years after Bobby had first seen the words of his soulmate’s tattoo display on his arm in a Celtic font, the color of the ink had never changed; he knew that someone, somewhere in the world had a tattoo that matched his, and he hoped that they were happy, but at this point he and Maura were past caring about who else was out there waiting for him.

Because Niall had been raised in an unconventional family that didn’t believe that you could only find lasting love and happiness within a soul-bond, it came as no surprise to Niall’s family or those who knew him that he was handling his own unique soulmate experience with aplomb. When Niall was just a child of 7, one night he accompanied his mum to her weekly Wednesday yoga class. As little Niall exited his parent’s minivan the skin on his left arm began to itch and the small veins in his arm appeared a bright blue under the surface of his skin. Niall didn’t think anything of it and only scratched at his arm absentmindedly. When Niall and his mother walked into the yoga class however, two phenomenal things occurred. The first was that Niall cried out and grabbed his left arm in pain as a hot searing feeling traveled along his arm like a laser was being run along his left side. The next thing that everyone in the room heard was the baby strapped to Cheri Steinfeld’s chest awaken from her nap and immediately begin wailing sobbing tears and Cheri gasp as she looked down and noticed that cursive writing lit up on her infant daughter’s chubby left arm in gold for a brief second before disappearing. What everyone in the room had witnessed was a premature soul bond; it was something that most people had only read about in history books or fairy tales.

After people had calmed down and the yoga class instructor had provided his office for Maura and Cheri to talk, the two mothers agreed to take their children to the local registrar office to find out what protocol needed to be followed. The Registrar was able to confirm by testing Niall and baby Hailee that they were indeed soulmates; they just had met a couple of decades too soon. From then on Niall felt a sort of freedom that his friends and the people he met in school didn’t feel. He knew exactly who and where his soulmate was; little Hailee Steinfeld and her family had moved from Mullingar, Ireland to London, shortly after the incident at the yoga studio. Niall and Hailee’s mothers kept in touch and provided regular updates about their children. Niall knew that he’d wait for Hailee to turn 18 and for the words “Some days you feel so good in your own skin” to appear as a tattoo somewhere on her body, just as they were etched into his left arm. He figured he’d give Hailee a few years to get used to the idea of them being fated and that they would eventually marry and start a family of their own. Niall’s mother had tried time and again to remind her youngest son that he didn’t necessarily have to commit to Hailee, but Niall liked that the decision had been removed from him; he loved the comfort in the certainty that he already knew who and where is soulmate was. He’d been excited to come to London for university because it meant that he was in the same as Hailee, even though the closer proximity hadn’t really changed anything about their interactions.

While their families had kept in touch, Niall had only truly met with Hailee in person once, on her 16th birthday, last year. Hailee had seemed completely overwhelmed by the whole concept and had been shy and reserved with Niall. He completely understood and tried to be as lighthearted as he could about the situation. Soon after, they began talking over regularly exchanged Twitter DMs and texts. Hailee liked having someone who was older, who she could confide in about the struggles she was having in school and with her friends. Even though their premature soul bond had taken place hundreds of miles away in Ireland, the story of their meeting had travelled all the way to London and Hailee was often teased and gawked at by people at school. Even her close friends regarded Hailee’s soulmate situation with the kind of awe that you give a circus freak show act, so it was nice for Hailee to have Niall to confide her fear and frustrations with. He encouraged her to date and have fun, because that’s what being a teen was all about. At 16, Hailee wasn’t sure how she felt about Niall; he seemed like a nice guy, and sure he was cute, but the idea that he was going to the one she spent her entire life with seemed too hard to imagine. She did love Niall’s soul bond tattoo though; it was in Gaelic, the words _Bíonn caora dhubh ar an tréad is gile_ on his skin of his right arm. Hailee wasn’t sure if she’d soon have the Gaelic saying on her left forearm or if the phrase would appear in English - “There tends to be a black sheep even in the whitest flock”. She had heard of other couples having soul bond tattoos with the same saying in different languages and felt sorry for them because it seemed like Fate’s cruel way of adding yet another obstacle to the whole process. So yes, in many ways Hailee felt blessed to already know who her soulmate was, but also felt the unwanted pressure of having a choice removed from her hands.

*******************************************************

Louis’ best friend Liam met his soulmate Zayn in a dance club. He had always identified as a cis straight male until he met Zayn. Liam had been out bar-hopping with Louis and they’d ended up at a club way past midnight, pleasantly tipsy and in the mood to dance away all of their problems. The two friends were giggly on the crowded dance floor, drunkenly pretending to grind up on each other to ward off this very insistent girl who was trying to dance with Louis, when Liam lifted his arms and started to twirl and suddenly Louis noticed that Liam’s soulmark tattoo had turned blue. They both abruptly stopped dancing and looked down at Liam’s arm in disbelief. And just as Liam started to turn around among the crush of people on the dance floor to go…he wasn’t even sure when, the words _I don’t think I won’t_ that were emblazoned on his arm changed from the electric blue that they’d been for who knows how little or long, turned a bright, blazing gold.

Liam barely heard Louis’ gasp above the EDM bass beat that was pumping through the speakers overhead, but followed his eyes to what had caused Louis to have that reaction. Liam’s eyes fell on a young man, a beautiful man, walking towards him through the press of bodies dancing, oblivious to the extraordinary situation happening to Liam. Call it a trick of the light coming from behind the DJ booth, but the beautiful stranger seemed to be bathed in a golden hue. It was as if the man heading straight for Liam had his own personal spot light, showing off his amazing bone structure and the nice quiff of his hair. Liam was frozen in place just staring into the beguiling dark amber eyes of the stranger who stopped when he was two feet away from Liam and held up his left arm revealing the gold and shimmery and bold words ONLY TIME WILL TELL that were a larger version of the same words that Liam had tattooed on his right hip. Liam in turn held up his arm in response, showing off his tattoo. The man seemed to be inspecting it and then he smiled, and Liam’s brain noted another gasp escape from Louis before his body moved forward the few steps it took to be directly in front of the man who was now looking at him in awe (and something that might’ve been love) But that was silly wasn’t it? It couldn’t be love he was feeling already, could it? Nonetheless, Liam’s lips felt magnetically drawn to the man’s and when he saw him lick them lightly, he closed the last bit of space between them and kissed the person who he knew to be his soulmate; a kiss that deepened before ending in nothing more than two smiles pressed against each other.

“Hi, I’m Zayn.” Liam’s soulmate said in a strong northern accent when they pulled away.

“My name is Liam.” Liam smiled again and took Zayn’s hand in his.

“Well Leeyum can we get out of here and talk?” Zayn smiled shyly and lightly squeezed Liam’s hand and Liam knew that he never wanted to hear his name said by anyone else; he loved the sound of it coming from Zayn’s Northern accented voice.

“Yeah, let’s go.” And with that, Liam pulled Zayn through the crowd and out through the front of the club.

“Hey guys?” Louis weakly called after them with a wave of his arm but he quickly realized the futility of this and instead turned back and headed to the bar to get another drink. He needed one after witnessing that staggering and magical moment. He realized halfway to the bar that what he really wanted to do was go home and crawl under his 15 lb weighted blanket for comfort, and have a good cry. Louis was so happy for his best friend and he couldn’t wait to grill him about everything the next day, but he also felt more than a little envious.

The next morning as promised Louis called Liam’s cell phone as soon as he was awake, had a wee and brushed his teeth. Liam didn’t answer until almost the sixth ring.

“ ‘Lo?” Liam mumbled gruffly.

“Am I waking you?” Louis asked incredulously as he looked at the clock on his nightstand and confirmed that it was past 9 in the morning. “You? The guy who wakes at 6 most mornings, even on weekends, to go for a run or to the gym? Are you sick or something?”

“No, I’m not sick. I was just up late last night talking with Zayn.” Louis could barely hear Liam because he seemed to be whispering.

“Ooh Zayn? So that’s the magic man’s name? I like it; it sounds mysterious. What’s he like?” Louis settled back against his pillows and prepared for a good gossip session with his best mate.

“He’s pretty amazing, actually.” And again Liam’s voice was barely above a fond whisper. Suddenly Louis’ eyes went wide and a knowing smirk grew on his face.

“YOU’RE NOT ALONE. You’re still with this Zayn bloke aren’t you? Is he…are you in bed together?? Liam you dog!” Louis cackled with glee.

“Shh shut up, please.” Liam hissed. “I don’t want to wake him.” He continued with a soft voice.

“Oh stop. I’m just teasing you, Leemo. I’m damn happy for you, and more than a little jealous. A gorgeous man just beams down from the heavens and onto the dance floor of Trax, and gives you one of the hottest soulbond kisses that I’ve ever seen? It’s not fair! You’re not even gay! Hey wait. Are you gay now?” Louis wondered out loud.

“Ummm…”, Liam hesitated and Louis could hear what sounded like Liam getting out of bed and walking and then the closing of a door. “I uh don’t know?”, Liam continued a little louder now, “It’s hard to explain I guess. I don’t think I know how to describe it. It’s like I’m not really sexually attracted to women anymore or men, only Zayn? This soulbond thing is some strong stuff. They didn’t really tell us about that in our 6th form Health and Human Sexuality classes, you know? I’m not gay like you are, it’s more like I’m gay for Zayn.” Liam sighed; Louis thought he sounded happy.

“So you’re a Zayn-asexual?” Louis asked with a giggle.

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“Gah! I hope this doesn’t happen to me, Liam. I like men too much. What if my soulmate is a woman? I mean, I know that just because you find your soulmate, doesn’t mean that you have to be with them, but that would sort of suck wouldn’t it? All that searching for nothing. Remember two years ago when I had that scare with that girl Kelli at Leeds?”

“Oh god, that was a mess.” Liam agreed.

 

 

 

 

> _Louis had met Kelli while standing in line at one of the beer gardens at the Leeds music festival the previous summer. He liked attending big festivals like Leeds, Edinburgh, and Coachella in America, because it was a chance to be among thousands of people who you might not regularly meet, concentrated in one area for a short period of time which increased your chance of meeting your soulmate. There were thousands of documented cases of soulmates meeting this way and it was a fairly common incentive and marketing ploy that festival organizers used to sell tickets._
> 
> _Louis’ tattoo had turned a bright vibrant green as soon as he had gotten his tent set up next to Liam’s. Louis took this as a good sign that fate was on his side and was excited to explore the grounds to see what and who he could find.  Hours later his tattoo was still green but he’d had no luck beyond that, so he’d decided to grab a beer and meet Liam at one of the stages on the other end of the grounds._
> 
> _The first thing that Louis had noticed about the tall, blond beauty was the faded script on her thigh, going down to just above her knee that was exposed by the short sundress she was wearing. It said til we surrender in cursive writing; he could barely make out the “til” part because above it and seeming to travel the rest of the way up her left leg was angry red scar tissue that made the tattoo hard to read. He looked at her arm to see if she had the matching soulbond tattoo to his, but the skin there was also marred by scar tissue. Louis knew it was rude to stare at her body, and he tried to pull his eyes away before she caught him. His soulbond tattoo remained stubbornly dark green so he didn’t even think that they were a match anyway, but it was hard not to get excited when he saw those words on her thigh. When Louis looked up at her again, she was staring at him with a look of wry amusement._
> 
> _“See something you like?” She said with a narrowing of her eyes like she was sizing Louis up._
> 
> _“Sorry sorry, it’s just that…look”, Louis held his left forearm out for hr to see and her eyes went wide with recognition._
> 
> _She stepped closer to Louis as they both moved up in the line to buy beer and put her finger up to the neck of the tank top he was wearing and pulled it low to reveal the tattoo on his chest that spanned under his collar bones. She absentmindedly grabbed her left arm and rubbed her hand up and down along her scar tissue that ran from her shoulder to her wrist._
> 
> _“…that’s strange…” she started to mutter, and then her eyes went wide as Louis’ tattoo lit up gold on his arm._
> 
> _“Oh my god!” They both uttered in amazement._
> 
> _“Are you…?”_
> 
> _“Could it be…?”_
> 
> _Louis paid for both of their beers and they found a bench to sit on and chat. Kelli was an Australian who had been a professional surfer until an accident involving her fighting a losing battle with 40 ft waves and a coral reef resulted in her sustaining extensive scar tissue down the entire left side of her body. She had taken up sports journalism after it became clear that she couldn’t surf anymore and now traveled all around the world covering different events instead of competing in them. She explained that the tattoo that had been on her arm for only a few short months before her accident had contained the words “it is what it is” and she’d figured that she’d never meet her soulmate, but now she wondered if Louis was the one. Louis asked about the tattoo on her leg and Kelli explained that it had originally been a longer string of words that said “Failure is not fatal until we surrender”. For the rest of the evening they tried to figure out their unique situation. Louis’ arm tattoo had turned back to green which was confusing, and nothing significant had happened to Kelli, so what did that mean?_
> 
> _Liam got in on the conversation later that evening after Louis and Kelli had walked back to their tents to talk more. Liam suggested that maybe Louis’ tattoo only said It Is What It Is because it was the end portion of the phrase, and that the tattoo on his arm only had “won’t stop til we surrender” because that was the only piece of Kelli’s tattoo that remained after her accident. She was older than Louis by almost five years, so Liam wondered if there wasn’t some kind of kismet energy that controlled things. Kelli surmised that perhaps her arm hadn’t lit up because it was entirely covered in scar tissue; maybe there was too much nerve damage for the soulmarks to work?_
> 
> _By the end of the weekend Kelli at least was convinced that she and Louis had found their soulmates in each other, and she began tentatively planning travel from her home in Brisbane to London where Louis was living and working. Louis was less certain. His arm had remained a consistent green the whole time in Leeds but also continued to randomly light up gold, off and on over the weekend, often when he was nowhere near Kelli, so he questioned if she was really the one. And if Louis was being honest, he sort of hoped that Kelli wasn’t his soulmate. She was a lovely person and was fun to be around, but she was also decidedly female and as attractive as she was, Louis didn’t feel attracted to her._
> 
> _Months passed and Kelli flew to London so that she and Louis could go see one of the soulbond medical specialists who could do tests and determine if they were in fact truly soulmates. These specialists and their tests were expensive and not always accurate; there were caveats galore in the medical release forms that protected the clinics from lawsuits just in case they were wrong. But Kelli came from wealth and had happily agreed to pay for the tests for the two of them, so Louis was glad to take them because he wanted to know just as much as she did. It took weeks to get the results and in the meantime Kelli had made Louis look for an apartment for them to live together, someplace that was bigger than his tiny one-bedroom loft in the slightly dodgy area of Kentish Town. When the results came back they were disappointing, at least to Kelli. The doctors were able to determine that neither of their tattoos were a soul bond match. The tattoo on Kelli’s arm had said “At the end of the day it is what it is”, and coupled with the fact that her leg tattoo was also slightly different than Louis’ arm, they could say with almost 100% certainty that they weren’t mates._
> 
> _Louis secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Kelli was willing and wanted to try and be in a relationship with Louis anyway. She argued that they really got along and that she could see something like love forming between them in the future. Louis smiled at her and shook his head no. He confessed that he didn’t feel anything more than friendship for Kelli, and anyway he pointed out that his tattoo had indeed lit up during the festival, so that meant that his soulmate was still out there for him and he had to continue to try and find them._

 

“Yeah, I’m glad that Kelli and I are still friends but I’m really glad we aren’t soulmates. Oh who am I kidding? At this point I’d take anyone if I could be 100% sure that they were my soulmate. I’m so glad you’ve got your happy ending, Li.”

“It’s early days, Louis. Zayn and I aren’t falling into anything permanent yet. Yes, I’m so damn happy that I’ve found him; there really has been a weight lifted off my shoulders that I didn’t even know I was carrying, but there’s still so much that he and I have to figure out. One of them is the gay thing. Or whatever; I guess I shouldn’t even label it. Zayn identifies as pansexual so this isn’t even an issue for him but it is going to take some time for me to fully wrap my head around. The one thing I know for sure right now is that I feel closer to him even after only a few hours than almost anyone else in my life. But we’re going to try and take things slow, take things step by step.”

“Says the man who fell into bed right away with the bloke after knowing him for exactly 10 minutes.” Louis smirked.

“Oh shut up. And I really should be getting back to him now. Can we meet up for dinner later so that you two can meet? I want the two most important guys in my life to get to know each other.”

Louis could practically hear the heart-eyes in Liam’s voice.

“yeah yeah, text me later about time and place. Just as long as you don’t cook!” Louis said just before hanging up.

Later after getting home from going out to dinner with Liam and Zayn, Louis contemplated his life. Wallowing in self-pity and evaluating and over analyzing things was a favorite pastime of his. Louis stripped down to his boxers and pulled on one of the dozens of soft jumpers that were folded neatly on the shelves in his closet. Louis frequently got cold and burrowing himself in the comfort of a fleece or wool jumper was a much-loved routine. Louis had sweaters and pullovers for all different occasions, from fancy to the holey and threadbare ones that he dubbed his “sleeping jumpers”. Tonight he chose a lilac cotton jumper that he’d recently got for cheap at the charity shop on Bethnal Green road. It was one of the softest things that Louis owned and the jumper frankly swallowed him up, it was so large. But he loved the color and thought it brought out his eyes, even though there’d probably never be anyone he cared about who would see him in it.

He sat up against his bed’s headboard, nestling under his gravity blanket and pulling the sleeves of the jumper over his hands and wondered when and if he’d ever get his happy ending. His mum had finally found hers, and now his best friend had met his soulmate in the kind of fairytale way that was practically ripped from the pages of one of those cheap soulmate romance novels people like his sisters loved to read. Zayn had been great, of course. More stunningly handsome than Louis had remembered from the night before, he was funny, playful and smart. And very attentive to Liam; Louis was pleased to see that. He could already tell that Zayn was going to become a close friend, and someone that he could definitely count on to join him in all the silly pranks and teasing that he loved to do to Liam.   

Louis wished that he could meet his soulmate in some storybook way that he and his (hopefully) husband could retell for years in their romantic way, finishing each other’s sentences, reminding the other of parts of the story that they’d missed or were telling wrong; correcting each other in a disgustingly schmoopy way with heart eyes and gentle kisses on the cheek. Louis wanted it all. He reminded himself that he was bound to meet his soulmate sooner or later. His soulbond tattoo was always turning a bright blue-green when he was in and around his neighborhood or at work in Finsbury Park.  He knew that meant that his soulmate most likely lived and/or worked in Zone 1 or 2 of London. His tattoo had in fact lit up in the now familiar greeny blue during dinner that night. Zayn’s eyes had immediately grown wide and he had excitedly waved his hands around waiting for Louis, or Liam for that matter, to have a reaction. The only thing that Louis had done was pull down the sleeve of the shirt that he’d pushed up to his elbow and continued his conversation with Liam about the merits of Cocoa Krispies versus Cocoa Puffs. Liam had taken pity on Zayn and his confused expression and had explained the fact that Louis’ soulbond tattoo lit up quite often, but that he rarely did anything about it. Louis defended himself against Zayn’s concerned face by making clear that he had tried to chase down his soulmate so many times in the last year that he was frankly tired of the disappointment. Louis figured that fate was looking out for him in some way and he should probably just let it be. And even though Louis sometimes got frustrated and impatient wondering if it ever was going to happen for him for real, his thoughts always returned to his mum and her struggle and he knew he could wait it out and hold out for the real thing. He just worried that the real thing wouldn’t live up to the image of his fantasy man.

Louis let out a sigh, knowing that he wouldn’t find easy sleep tonight. Maybe he needed to increase the weight of his gravity blanket to 20 pounds. He pulled his iPad off its charging pad and opened YouTube bringing up one of his favorite ASMR channels to see if he could find a new video or audio that would make him relaxed enough to fall asleep. Louis got the best sensory response from the sound of low or soft rather monotone voices reading things like instructions or textbooks; topics or items that were mundane spoken by just the right voice gave Louis such a pleasant tingle that would travel down his spine and make him immediately sleepy; almost as if the person was physically rubbing their hand up and down his back, their fingertips smoothing across his skin. Sometimes on his worse nights, Louis would imagine his fantasy soulmate in bed with him, reading softly to him and trailing his fingers lightly up and down his body from head to hip until he fell asleep.

After a couple of minutes of scrolling he came across a new video that he’d never seen before. It was titled “My friend Harry reads me the ingredients and instructions for making baklava”. It was dated on just the previous Tuesday, so it was indeed new. Louis clicked on it and settled back against his pillows to give it a listen. It was obviously filmed with someone’s phone and Louis could see a kitchen counter, various bowls and pans and a pair of lovely large and strong looking hands, belonging to presumably “Harry”. Harry had the sleeves of a white dress shirt rolled up and Louis could see tattoos on his right forearm and his left wrist and of course his soulbond tattoo but Louis couldn’t make out what the cursive writing said, although he thought he saw a word that looked like “whatever”. Louis gave up trying to figure out what this guy looked like and instead focused on his voice instead. And once he was fully listening, Louis felt a delicious tingle run from the tips of his toes and up the entire length of his body until it settled as a pleasurable ripple through his brain. This Harry’s voice was a soft, deep baritone that almost sounded sleepy or bored as he read through a list of ingredients and pieces of kitchen equipment that would be needed to create the sticky dessert. Louis was in love with the sound of this man’s voice and imagined this Harry lying next to him reading from a cookbook, maybe deciding on the week’s menu that he would make them; Louis imagined Harry reading to him and running one of those large hands of his through Louis’ hair and down his back as Louis fell into a deep sleep.

***************************************************************

Harry exited the tube at the Mile End stop and made his way to the apartment he shared with Niall. It had been an exceptionally long and exhausting day at work, and all Harry wanted to do was shower, eat a bowl of pot noodles, and get in bed. His feet seemed to drag slower and slower which sort of defeated the purpose of him trying to hurry home. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough iron in his diet? He decided that he would make some lentil and kale soup this week because he knew his bank account wouldn’t allow him to buy a nice cut of steak.

Harry finally rounded the corner of his and Niall’s block and walked up the steps to the door of their flat as fast as his tired legs could move. He unlocked the door and entered a blissfully quiet and dark apartment. He didn’t even bother turning on any lights except for the one in the hallway, as he went to his bedroom, stripping off his coat, shirt, and shoes along the way. Once he had closed the door to his bedroom, he leaned against it heavily and dropped the clothing items he was holding to the floor. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes while exhaling slowly through his mouth and closing his eyes for a moment. Harry did a few more of these deep cleansing breaths as he removed the remainder of his clothes and went into his bathroom to turn on his shower and gratefully wash off the day.

After he was showered, fed, and comfortably nestled in his bed under his 20 lb weighted blanket that he used for his anxiety, Harry found that he was unable to sleep. He let out a frustrated sigh and grumpily kicked his feet in protest, finally giving up after forcing his eyes closed and trying to will himself to sleep didn’t work. Harry turned the lamp on his nightstand back on, and sat up propping one of his pillows behind his back for support. He pushed up the left sleeve of his pajama top and rubbed his fingers along the words written in cursive there; now a smooth black, but that had been lit up a beautiful dark aquamarine for most of the day. It was torture, and an all too often occurrence, to know that his soulmate was somewhere close, near enough for his body to feel it, and as yet still nearly impossible to find. For the first several months that it had happened, Harry would stop whatever he was doing and just begin walking in a particular direction. If he made it within a mile without the tattoo changing back to black, he would change direction and keep walking to see if the tat would turn gold. But after awhile this practice became disruptive and emotionally painful. Harry had reconciled his warring emotions to accept the obvious fact that his soulmate lived or worked close to him and that eventually fate would shine down on him, and put the person in his path. But that didn’t mean that it didn’t still hurt or depress him a little. He just wanted to find them!

Harry knew that it sometimes took decades to find your “person”. He also knew that sometimes even if you were fated for someone and found them, it wasn’t always the fairytale that everyone surmised. He only had to look at his mother Anne, who had met her soulmate Des when she was just 19 and had ended up hating him a decade later because of his gambling and drinking. It wasn’t until she had gone through one of those dating websites that people used if their soulmate had passed away or if like Anne your soulbond was broken, that she’d met the actual love of her life, a widower named Robin. She was the happiest she’d ever been and Harry knew that should’ve given him hope that maybe he didn’t need to find his soulmate to find love. It was just that they were so close! Harry felt like it was foolish to give up trying to find his mate; he wanted to give them a chance. He had thought about signing up for SoulMatch.com a few times, had even socked away the two thousand quid that it would cost to start the process, but he had always thought that sites like that were sort of cheating; he wanted his happy ending to happen organically. But he was also impatient; he wanted his happy ending right now. Harry didn’t care that he was only 25 and had only been looking for his mate for less than eight years.

Harry ultimately didn’t care about the gender of his soulmate; he supposed he considered himself bi, but truthfully he’d only had penetrative sex with two people in his life and he didn’t really know what his sexual orientation was. His first time ever was with his 6th form girlfriend, Amanda. The sex had been awkward, sweet, and unsatisfying. By the time he got to uni they had broken up, having both just gotten their soulbond tattoos and seeing proof that they weren’t meant for each other. Harry’d had a few flings with both women and men throughout uni, involving mostly handjobs and oral sex, but had only gone all the way with one person at university, a guy named John from his Psychology class. Harry had crushed on John for months, and had finally summoned enough courage to start a conversation with him while drunk at a bar with Niall. By the end of the night he and John had their tongues down each other’s throats and their hands down the other’s pants shortly thereafter. They’d dated for a few weeks and then John had gone with his family to Switzerland for Christmas and had met his soulmate Pierre in a St. Moritz ski lodge.   

Harry reached down underneath his bed and felt around until his fingers met the smooth, tortoise shell handles of what he was after, pulling it out and onto the bed. The tapestry bag with a sun and moon intricately embroidered on it was something that Harry had found more than a decade ago in a charity shop in East London when he was a teen. This bag held only one item; another of his knitting projects, but this one was special.  When Harry was 18 and his soulbond tattoo appeared on his arm, he began knitting a jumper for his soulmate. Well, he wasn’t exactly sure it was _for_ the person; but it was definitely inspired by them, or more accurately, who Harry wanted and hoped they’d be. The first thing that Harry had done all those years ago was carefully choose the base color and the type of yarn he would use. He’d gone with his nan to her favorite yarn shop and had perused the hundreds of skeins of cashmere yarn, having decided that cashmere would be soft and comforting. He looked for the perfect greenish blue color before finding one that he thought was perfect to make up the majority of the jumper. Harry next chose a cashmere yarn a color of blue that he liked to imagine were the color of his soulmate’s eyes. A deep reddish brown, the color he dreamed of for his soulmate’s hair; a sunny yellow and orange and a creamy ecru that made Harry happy. He’d gone back to his nan’s that night and had begun knitting a cable knit jumper for his future love. Over the years Harry had added phrases like his soulbond tattoo that said **_It Is What It Is_ ** along the collar of the jumper, and little love words that would randomly pop into Harry’s head like “precious”, “my forever”, “next to you” and “home”. He added these and the various pictures and shapes that he’d designed by using the intarsia knitting technique which allowed one to introduce areas of color in any shape or size to whatever background area had been knit originally. Harry spread the jumper on his lap as he straightened his legs in his bed. He smoothed the jumper out, running his hands over the sun, moon and star shapes that he had added with intarsia over time. Harry was careful not to tangle or accidentally knock any stitches off the three circular needles he had going with his hundreds of loops. He fingered the bottom of the jumper for a brief moment. Technically the jumper was complete; he only needed to bind off the the bottom hem and the cuffs of the sleeves. But Harry was unwilling to finish it; he always found excuses and new designs and shapes that he wanted to add. He saw now that he’d soon run out of room; there was only about a 20cm square space in the bottom left back of the jumper that was a smooth blue waiting for him to add something.

When Harry fantasized about the person that would wear this jumper, unbidden his mind always conjured up the image of the same person. It had been two years before and Harry had gone to the Leeds music festival with Niall and a few other uni friends. His tattoo has been blue almost the entire day and Harry had felt confident that this was the day that he’d finally find his soulmate. He’d just entered one of the beer gardens when he felt a sharp tug in his arm and looked down to see his tattoo become a bright gold. Harry gasped out loud and sucked in a deep breath as his eyes fell to a beautiful boy with his back to him, about 8 feet away. The boy’s arm was also lit in gold and he was having an animated conversation with a woman in front of him. Harry was frozen in place; he didn’t understand why his legs weren’t moving, why he had no voice. He could only stare at the man in front of him, drinking the details in. His straight deep caramel hair with its messy fringe, his small but grounded stature with his lean yet curvy body. The man was animatedly talking to the woman in front of him and Harry didn’t know why he wasn’t turning around to see Harry. Then Harry felt his whole world tilt as the man warmly hugged the woman he’d been chatting with and exclaimed “I can’t believe I found you!” Harry stood confused and almost dizzy. If the cute guy had found his soulbond with this woman then Harry’s someone else must be close by. He stumbled around the beer garden, frantically looking for his mate. As he walked further away from the entrance his tattoo turned back to blue, so he headed back to where he’d been before, except his tattoo remained a stubborn blue.

Harry felt tears spill down his cheeks as he examined the knitting on his lap. He brushed them away from his cheeks and took a deep breath to rid himself of the hiccuping sobs that were threatening to overcome him. Harry picked up the jumper and held it close to his chest and made a wish on it; could he please be blessed with his one true partner?  

***********************************************************

Louis loved his job and knew that he was lucky to have it. Not many people like him were given the opportunities he had been or been able to use them to apply themselves and rise through the ranks like Louis had done. He was the First Team Analyst for Arsenal Football club. Louis had originally played defense for the Doncaster Rovers after a scout had seen him play for his school in a couple of crucial games. Louis had lasted two seasons in Football League One with the Rovers before a broken foot that didn’t really heal right and a torn MCL in his left knee ended his professional career. Louis had gone to uni with an ambition to learn Statistics because he figured he should put all of the FC stat knowledge in his brain to good use. It had paid off when he’d been interviewed for a position with the Arsenal team and had gotten it. Sure, he’d started out as an assistant kit manager, but it was with a Premier League team, and Louis had done well and made friends with management and within three years had risen to the position he now had. As an analyst he worked with the Senior team analyst, the coaches and management to provide feedback about players and perform pre and post game analysis. Louis relished the chance he got to be still involved with a professional FC, even if he wasn’t playing for them. And everyone was much more accepting of his homosexuality than he’d experienced when he was playing for Donny. The coach for the Rovers had known he was gay along with several of the players, but he always felt a pressure to keep his orientation a secret. The other great part of working for Arsenal these past couple of years was that he had been able to recommend Liam for a job in the Marketing office and he’d gotten it last year, so now he had his best mate working with him as well as a job he truly enjoyed and knew he was good at.

Louis, Liam and Zayn had travelled to Manchester for the football game against Man City, and had originally decided that they’d just enjoy a nice dinner and turn in early at the hotel they were staying in downtown. But somehow Zayn had gotten wind of a rave that was happening in an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Salford. Louis had reluctantly agreed to go with them after grabbing a rushed dinner at a fish and chips place down the street from the hotel.

The three had approached the street that Zayn’s text said was where the party was; their Uber had dropped them off a few blocks away saying he wouldn’t take them any further for fear of being carjacked. Louis was having a lot of doubts about this night and Liam kept on whipping his head around at any little sound, moving closer to Zayn each time he did so. Only Zayn seemed unbothered.

“Wait. I think I hear something.” Zayn said and put his arm out to stop Louis and Liam’s progress.

Louis could also hear a muffled bass coming from about 20 yards ahead of them. “Come on let’s go. We’ve come this far.”

As they approached the seemingly abandoned and totally dark building that the sound was emitting from, the music got louder and easier to decipher. Zayn approached a metal door and knocked in the pattern that he’d been instructed to use. After a few seconds the door slid back and a large black man with gold teeth smiled at them and said in a heavy Northern accent, “10 quid each please”.

The guys handed over their money and were ushered inside. The bouncer led them down a long, creepy hall and the music became louder as they approached another set of doors. The man knocked three times and this time the doors were pulled open by a friendly looking ginger-haired man who had to yell at them to be heard over the now extremely loud techno beat playing.

“Hiya guys! Welcome. Have fun, dance the night away, there’s beer and alcohol spread throughout the venue, but no hard drugs! If we catch you with smack or some shit, you will be ejected from the premises!”

Louis and his friends nodded and made their way into the crowded space. Within a few minutes, Louis’ soul bond tattoo had turned blue and he became separated from Liam and Zayn as he made his way through the crowd and towards one of the bars. After he’d secured a plastic cup of surprisingly decent tasting beer, Louis scanned the crowd. Just as he had decided to go find Liam and Zayn to go dance, his tattoo lit up a bright gold. A handful of people around Louis ooh’d and gasped but not because their tattoo had lit in kind. And as Louis moved through the crowd searching everyone’s left arm, his eye caught on the tattoo going around the neck of a pretty woman dancing boisterously to the music. The choker she was wearing around her neck obscured part of the tattoo but Louis became excited when he saw part of the tattoo peeking out that said “Won’t Stop Til”. Louis grabbed her right arm and pulled her around to face him. The young woman angrily shook her arm out of his grasp and gave Louis a sneer. He immediately looked down at her left arm and saw that her tattoo said something different than his, and it was a golden green meaning that she was already in a soul bond. Louis showed her his arm and politely asked to look at the tattoo around her neck anyway, knowing that he couldn’t stand not knowing for sure. The girl’s stern face softened in an understanding way. When she lifted her necklace, Louis saw that her tattoo actually said “Won’t Stop Til You Get Enough”. Louis thanked her and apologized for bothering her and had just turned around to leave when the girl’s soulmate came up to him and soundly punched Louis in the face. He went down hard. Once the young woman had explained the situation to her soulmate he’d felt awful about slugging Louis and took him to the bar to get a towel with ice in it. After this unfortunate altercation Louis had stumbled around the makeshift club holding ice wrapped in a dirty, foul-smelling rag to his blackening eye, while he tried in vain to find the person that he was fated to be with. As his eye continued to swell, he eventually had to give up because he could hardly see. He texted Liam and Zayn to come find him and take him back to the hotel.

***********************************************************

Harry wasn’t happy. He was crammed in the back seat of an old Fiat with Gemma and her soulmate Robbie while three complete strangers that they’d only met tonight at the Man City game were arguing about the location of this rave that he evidently was being dragged to in the middle of one of the sketchiest areas that he’d ever seen. Tonight was supposed to be fun; not scared for your life terrifying. Who were these assholes and where were they taking them? He knew he should’ve begged to go back to Robbie’s dad’s house, even if he would’ve had to go alone. But Gemma had reminded him that tonight wasn’t just celebrating Man City’s win; they were also supposed to be taking Harry out to celebrate him completing his CILIP accreditation for his Masters program in Library Sciences. Harry just wished they were having some champagne in a nice quiet bar somewhere, not trying to find some dumb rave.

Harry was also irritated and on edge because his soul bond tattoo had been a bright blue-green as soon as their taxi had let them out at the stadium earlier in the day. It had stayed that way throughout the match, and Harry had wandered around the entire stadium trying to see if it would turn gold. It hadn’t, and was now back to the plain boring, non-bonded black color he hated. Now one hour later, Harry stood at the end of one of the bars, holding a cup of beer he had no intention of drinking. Being at a loud, drunken party in a filthy warehouse in the middle of nowhere, where everyone seemed to be on some sort of hallucinogen and was dancing around the cavernous, dark space to the loud electronic bass-driven beat, was decidedly NOT what someone who had just gotten their second degree to be a _librarian_ would call a good time. Just as Harry started to take a resigned sip of his lukewarm beer, he noticed that his soul bond tattoo was blue again. He threw the beer he was holding in the trash bin next to him, put his tweed blazer back on and went to try and find Gemma. He’d just located her and Robbie and had answered her wave with one of his own when a sharp tingle traveled down his left forearm. He took his blazer off again and rolled up his shirt sleeve to reveal his soulmate tattoo lit up like hundreds of tiny candles had been placed under his skin. Gemma ran up to him and went absolutely mad about it; jumping up and down and loudly whooping, punctuated by intermittent hugs and cheek kisses to her little brother. Gemma and Robbie dragged him around the party and along the dance floor for over an hour, only to be disappointed when the golden light of the words faded back to blue and then to a dull black. Fate had foiled him again.

**********************************************************

Harry stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist and using another to rub his hair dry, as the lemongrass scented steam floated around him. He rubbed the fog away from the center of the medicine cabinet mirror and took a good look at his hair, his recently shorn locks stood up in short curly spikes. Harry wasn’t used to his short hair yet. He’d only had it cut for about a month; he still expected his reflection to show chocolate-colored curls hanging past his collarbones and missed the feel and weight of hair brushing against his shoulders. He had felt good about giving his shorn locks to charity so that at least it hadn’t felt like a huge waste.

It had taken over two years to grow his hair that long. He had started doing it at first as a response to a disparaging remark a man who he went on a blind date with said about Harry’s hair being too unmanageable and telling him he was lucky it wasn’t longer. Harry had almost taken the comment as a dare. He remembered thinking “I’ll show this little nitwit”. It was the last blind date, well really the last date period, that Harry had gone on. He had focused almost exclusively on finishing his Master’s certificate in Library Sciences, and not on dating, his sex life, or finding his soulmate. But now that his career dreams were within his grasp, Harry thoughts had begun to drift back to dreaming about finding and forging a soul bond.

Harry knew with only a thread of a doubt that his soulmate lived and/or worked in London, and he’d even narrowed it down to what he thought might be a couple of neighborhoods, based on when his soul bond tattoo would turn blue. From what Harry could tell, his soulmate frequented central London in the neighborhoods of Kentish Town, Highbury, Camden, Marleybone, Sheperd’s Bush, Notting Hill and Bloomsbury. There had even been several times when Harry had been walking around his and Niall’s apartment when his tattoo had turned a bright blueish green. One time it happened when Harry was cooking a full English in the nude and before he could decide whether to get dressed and investigate where his soulmate might be, the tattoo had turned a disappointing black again. Harry sighed and lightly traced the words on his arm.

Harry entered his bedroom with a towel wrapped loosely around his hips and stood in front of the full-length mirror leaning against his wall next to his closet door. He dropped his towel onto the floor and looked at his body in the mirror, rubbing his hands up and down his toned arms and legs, checking the state of his grooming (his pubic hair was looking like it might need a trim soon), and generally admiring what he saw; turning slightly took check out his pert bum. Harry followed a daily yoga practice and was proud of his body and the results of his dedication. Having a toned and flexible body was something that he enjoyed; he was just waiting for his someone to share the benefits with.

As Harry continued to gaze at his body in the mirror he contemplated taking a few photos to post on his secret Instagram. No one knew, not even Niall, that he had a sizeable and loyal bunch of followers of his youflower_youfeast photo-blog that consisted of tastefully shot nudes, and semi-nudes of Harry that he took in various places from his the various rooms in his apartment to the public toilets at work. He was sure to never show his face or his soulbond tattoo, although he couldn’t do anything about the fact that most of his other tattoos were visible. It gave him a thrill sometimes to think that his soulmate might be looking at the photos of his body; perhaps even masturbating to them; Harry was no prude despite what his friends might think. He hoped that maybe someday he’d get a private message from his soulmate after they saw one of his photos where his ankle was exposed showing off what just might be tattooed on their left arm. He grabbed his phone and took a few shots of his body, from different angles and covering different areas of his skin. Harry’s cock began hardening thinking of his anonymous soulmate perhaps touching themselves and masturbating to Harry’s photos once he uploaded them to his account.

Harry worked his fist around his cock, looking down to see the gleaming head of his cock peeking out beneath his shifting foreskin. A pearly bead of fluid was just beginning to work its way from the slit, and slid towards his thumb. Harry changed his grip, alternating between swift, two fingered strokes and long, slow tugs. He looked at his face in the mirror and saw the pretty flush that had spread from his cheeks, down his neck and across his chest. His eyes continued to travel down as he took his free hand and tweaked a nipple. He watched his stomach muscles contract underneath the thin trail of dark hair before his eyes fell back to his cock, which was even more rigid than before. Harry was fully hard; his balls were flushed and heavy looking beneath the coarse hair that covered them. Harry's left hand, which had been playing with his nipple, moved to brush over his balls, cupping and rolling them gently in his palm. His middle finger slipped back further still, to massage at the skin of his perineum behind them. He imagined his fantasy boy with the beautiful face and the blue eyes watching him touch himself, to stroke himself to completion. Harry imagined him whispering filthy things in his ear, telling Harry all the ways that he was going to wreck him. Harry’s strokes became quicker and quicker until he cried out with his release, coming all over his hand and onto the towel below at his feet. He bit his lip to muffle his moan just in case Niall was home. His body shuddered as the touch on his dick turned into something just this side of too sensitive. He bent down to pick up his towel and wiped the come from his hands before throwing the towel in the hamper and getting a pair of briefs out of his drawer to put on.

**********************************************************************

Niall’s phone rang just as he and Harry slid into a booth at Sláinte (slaan-cheh), looking forward to a couple of pints after a busy week. Niall had worked with a difficult client at the recording studio where he worked as a sound engineer, and he was happy for the weekend and the chance to sleep in. As his phone lit up he saw that it was Hailee and quickly answered it, standing up again and indicating to Harry that he was going outside to take the call.

“Hailee, how are you?”

“Hey Niall. Is this a bad time? Do you have time to talk?”

“I always have time for you, what’s up?”

“Um…well you know how I that one guy, Ken, from New York saw me in West Side Story a few months ago, and hooked me up with one of his producer friends? I got to record that demo last month?”

“I’ve played your demo for all of my friends, by the way, they’re probably sick of me bragging about you but that’s not stopping me.” Niall’s fondness came through clearly.

Hailee hesitated for a moment and Niall heard her sigh heavily. “Hails, what is it?” Niall asked with concern.

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s good actually. Ken gave my demo to Rob Marshall; THE Rob Marshall, you know the guy that made “Chicago”? Well he’s doing a Broadway stage production of “The Little Mermaid” and he wants me to be Ariel.”

For several seconds there was silence from Niall. “Hello? Niall, you still there?”

Niall stared out into the park across the street from the pub and mumbled in shock, “But you don’t even have red hair.”

“What? Oh, yeah well I guess they’ll have me wear a wig or something. But Niall, do you understand what this means? I’M GOING TO BE ON BROADWAY. I’VE BOOKED A MAJOR BROADWAY SHOW.”

“What about school? Are you just dropping out or something?” Niall knew that he was asking and saying meaningless things but he couldn’t help that his brain wasn’t processing any of this well.

“They’ve arranged for me to have a tutor. I guess there are a couple of other teens in the cast that are around my age, so we’ll be…”

Niall interrupted her, “But American high school is different than the education standards in the UK, you’ll be further ahead of them I bet, and what if they make you take American Civics or US History, that’s not very fair.” Niall’s voice trailed off as he ran out of fake obstacles to point out.

“Niall?”, Hailee said softly, “stop, just don’t. It’s okay to admit that you’re going to miss me.”

Niall released the breath that he’d been holding and surprised himself by feeling tears prick at his eyes. “It was fine when you moved from Mullingar to London. Because you were still close, you know, and then I was in London too so it was good. But now you’ll be an ocean away, doing all of these exciting and important things, meeting all of these exciting and important people…you’re going to forget about me, and why shouldn’t you? I’m not really anything important to you, anyone important.”

“Niall that’s not true! I know you’ve always said that you’d let me choose how to handle our soul bond; that you’d let me decide, and I’m grateful to you for that. But it’s sort of felt like you don’t really think I’m going to go through with it. Like you think I’ll renege.  And look, if I’m being honest I don’t know what I want to do yet. I’m only 17! But I do know that I want you in my life. And me moving to New York and having this experience won’t change that.”

“I…I just don’t want to lose you. I’m scared of missing out on something that hasn’t even been mine yet.” Niall forlornly confessed.

“FOMO? You? What are you always telling me? You make your own fun wherever you are so there’s nothing to miss out on. Where’s that Niall gone to?” Hailee lightly teased, hoping to get the smile back into Niall’s voice.

“Yeah, alright. It’s just like you to throw my own words back at me. I just…Hailee you’re it for me. I know I’ve talked a big game about how our soul bond is just a formality and that we can both make our own decisions about what happens, but to tell you the truth, I’ve already decided. I made up my mind the minute I met you at your 16th birthday party where all your friends were wearing cute little dresses and flowery tops and you were standing and laughing in the corner talking to your dad, wearing jeans and a t-shirt with shiny silver doc martens. Soul bond or not, you’re the one for me and I’ll wait as long as I have to, to let you figure out on your own that I’m the one for you too.” Niall finished and let the silence on the other end of the phone go on for what seemed like minutes.

“Hailee? You still on the line? Have I completely terrified you?”

“No, no I’m still here. Thanks…thank you for being honest with me, I…well I really appreciate it. Listen, I have to go. I’ll be in touch soon with my New York information. I think they’re giving me a new phone too. I’ll definitely talk to you before I leave. Bye.”

With a rush of words Hailee abruptly ended the call. Niall wasn’t sure how to take her thanking him but not actually reciprocating his feelings. He took a deep breath and willed himself not to cry, especially not when he was standing on a public sidewalk in front of a busy pub. Once he could feel the unbidden tears recede he put a smile on his face, albeit a fake one, and turned to head back inside to Harry.

******************************************************************

Louis checked the time; it was almost midnight. He’d just gotten back from a late work session that had then been followed by a visit to the pub down the street for some fish and chips and a couple of pints with his coworkers. His soulbond tattoo had been lit up a brilliant bluey-green almost the entire time at the pub, and Louis had found it increasingly hard throughout the evening to ignore the stares from his coworkers and the excited and concerned looks from his boss.

But as Louis was saying his last goodbyes outside of the pub and had turned to heads towards home, his tattoo had lit up a bright, almost silvery gold. He looked around frantically for the person responsible but could see no one walking along the sidewalks on either side of the street. The only thing that Louis could see was the black taxi that was driving by at just that moment. It took for the car to drive past him and turn the corner, causing his tattoo to begin to fade back to blue before Louis realized that his soulmate was in the car! Louis sprinted after it, yelling for the taxi to stop, but they either didn’t hear him or purposely ignored him. Louis felt tears pricking his eyes; another opportunity found and lost again.

Louis felt exhausted as he took his clothes off, stripping down to his boxers and laid down on his bed. He closed his eyes but he knew he couldn’t sleep, couldn’t stop thinking about the person in the taxi – his SOULMATE.  Louis felt himself getting hard at the thought, and reached down to palm his cock slowly as he started fantasizing about his soulmate again, thinking about how it’d feel to touch him, to make love to him, would his soulmate take their time touching and kissing every part of his body, or would they be too impatient and take Louis swiftly?

Louis lifted his hand off his burgeoning erection and turned his iPad on, bringing Instagram up on the screen. He had recently come across an account called _you flower_you feast_ which featured semi-nude and nude photographs of this gorgeous man with a handsome, lithe body littered with interesting tattoos. The man kept most of his face hidden, but he had long, curly dark brown hair and the most divine large hands that Louis definitely had dreamed about touching his body, and long fingers that made Louis embarrassingly aroused thinking about them slick with spit and lube. As Louis brought the account up he realized that he hadn’t checked his Instagram in over a month. He saw that _you flower_you feast_ had just posted something the day before. It was a series of four black and white photos; closeups of one heavenly puffy nipple, the beautiful butterfly tattoo on chest, one of _flower_ ’s glorious hands covering (barely) his groin, and the last one of his left hand grabbing his right ankle, demonstrating his great flexibility and causing Louis’ length to harden fully thinking about what he could do with someone that bendy.

He imagined what those hands would feel like on his cock; imagined the faceless dream-man whispering dirty things in his ear as he slammed into him hard. Louis let out a moan stroking himself faster, he flipped over and settled on his knees, lowering his chest until it was flush on the bed. He snatched the bottle of lube from the drawer of his nightstand, opening it and getting an appropriate amount on two of his digits. He lowered his head, reaching behind himself, fingers finding his asshole. Louis shut his eyes so he could picture _flower_ ; his large, perfect hands, and long fingers working into him. Louis took his cock in a tight grip and ran his thumb over each ridge and nerve. He huffed a pleasured breath and pushed into his own hand.  He rolled his head to the side and looked at the photo of the hand grabbing the ankle again and felt his cock twitch against his palm. Louis pressed his fingers into his length, his thumb rubbing into the tip. Just as he felt himself reaching the crest, Louis noticed that he could make out a portion of the tattoo on _flower_ ’s left forearm – _What It Is_ . Louis came hard with a shuddering strangled moan. He collapsed on his bed and curled on his side panting, trying to catch his breath. Oh my god, Louis silently screamed, could it be? Was the mysterious _flowers_ actually his SOULMATE??

Louis wiped his hands off on his discarded t-shirt on the floor and then opened the camera on his phone to take a photo of his soulbond tattoo. He then sent a private message to _flower_ ’s account and said a silent prayer. Drained from the day, he fell asleep in seconds.

*****************************************************************

It had been three days since Louis had messaged _flower_ and three days that Louis had barely slept. He’d called in sick to work and instead had been a hermit, relying on pizza delivery and Indian takeaway for food and barely taking his eyes off of his phone hoping for some kind of contact. Louis had even resorted to fully cleaning his apartment, including scrubbing his bathroom with baking soda and bleach like his mother used to do, until he realized that he hadn’t opened the bathroom window for ventilation and almost passed out from the fumes.

He was now on the couch eating reheated pepperoni pizza while wrapped in his favorite lilac jumper that he had pulled over his knees as he pulled his feet up onto the couch. He checked his IG on his phone for the fiftieth time in the past hour and then picked up his iPad, propped it on his knees and brought up the Evening Standard online to look to see if they’d written anything about the new Arsenal ad campaign that Liam had worked on, and to look through the “I Saw You”s to see if anyone had put a notice there that fit his description. As Louis scrolled through a few articles he came upon the Classifieds section and one item caught his eye.

 

 

 

 

> **_FREE TO GOOD HOME - FLEMISH GIANT RABBIT_ **
> 
> **_5 YEARS OLD - HOUSETRAINED - FIRST COME/FIRST GET_ **

Louis sat up and put his feet back down and reread the ad. A smile broke across his face and he felt happy for the first time in days. His sister Fizzy had a Flemish Giant when she was 10 and she was very loveable and floppy and the whole family had been crushed when the rabbit had accidentally been killed by a car when she’d gotten out of their grandmother’s yard and run into the street. Suddenly Louis stood up; he was going to go get that rabbit. A pet was just what he needed to get him out of his doldrums. He went into his bedroom and pulled out a pair of clean jeans and pulled them on over his boxers. He thought about changing into a different shirt, but decided that he’d keep the lilac jumper on, simply rolling up the sleeves a bit. He slipped an old pair of Vans on, grabbed his wallet, keys and his phone, noted the address of the pet shop and headed out towards Camden.

***********************************************

Harry left the pet shop pleased to see that the sun had come out since he had been inside the store doing perhaps one of the most impulsive things that even he, had ever done. He held the giant, grey rabbit closer to his chest and snuggled his face into his fur, inhaling his grassy scent. Sebastian was the newest member of Harry’s family and he felt himself falling in love with him already. He wasn’t sure how Niall would react to their new roommate, but he also knew that Niall couldn’t stay mad at him for longer than a couple of hours, so he figured they were okay. Harry switched Sebastian to his right arm so that he could get his phone out of his pocket and order an Uber. He noticed that his soulbond tattoo was a lovely sea blue and slightly smiled. One thing at a time, he thought. He’d only just got a pet; he would focus on finding his soulmate next.

****************  

Louis came running around the corner and jogged towards the pet store just as a handsome young man was getting into a taxi holding a very large rabbit in his arms. Louis called out a “Hey!” to ask if maybe the rabbit the guy was holding wasn’t the Flemish Giant from the ad. The guy looked up and gave him a crooked smile that showed off a dimple and Louis felt all of the air go out of his lungs. The guy didn't wait for Louis to say anything else, he just stepped into the back of a waiting car just as Louis’ soulbond tattoo lit up gold. The man’s cab started to pull away before Louis could figure out what was going on and as it began to head towards the corner to turn, Louis looked down and saw that his tattoo was turning back to blue so he knew without a doubt that this was the guy. THE GUY - his soulmate! His soulmate was leaving him in an Uber with _his_ rabbit!

Louis ran after the taxi, yelling at it to stop. And just when he began to lose hope that he was ever going to catch it, the car came to a screeching halt. The man stumbled out, clutching the gray rabbit to his chest like a large baby and stared at Louis in shock as Louis came running up, out of breath from both the sprint and the fact that his tattoo was lighting up and giving off a frenetic golden glow.

“Hey, mate!” Louis huffed out. “I think you have _my_ rabbit!”

Harry hesitated a moment, looking confused. He looked down at Sebastian who looked back up at him with his soft brown eyes, and then Harry looked again at his left forearm and the tattoo glowing in gold there. He lifted his head and looked back at the beautiful man standing in front of him with his hands on his hips and a smirk on his face; Harry was being teased and blushed with this fact. This man was so much more gorgeous than Harry had remembered from that beer garden two years ago in Leeds. And Harry gasped in recognition - was this beautiful boy wearing the sweater that he had knit? Harry felt giddy and almost light-headed with everything that was happening.

“Oh? Have I? And how is he your rabbit? I just got him from the pet store right there, and I was told he didn't have an owner. But of course NOW he does; Me." Harry teased back, both of his dimples popping with his large smile.

"But you don't understand. I need the rabbit. I've been looking for something like him for a long time." Louis smiled back.

"Well I think we’ve both got something the other has been looking for.” Harry smiled again, holding his left arm out and feeling tears prick at his eyes. The other man looked like he might me tearing up too.

“Yes. I think we’ve both been looking for it for a long time.” Louis inhaled deeply and felt a calmness come over him.

“Hey you two wankers comin’ in this car or what? I’m still going to charge you for the fare mister AND I’m only givin’ ya one star!” The Uber driver interrupted Louis and Harry with his brash warning and Harry found himself squawking with laughter, even though losing his hard-won 5 star Uber standing wasn’t something to laugh about.

“Yeah yeah, we’re coming, quit acting like you have something better to do!” Louis yelled back and Harry felt himself flush with pride and felt his soulbond tattoo pulse with approval.

“Shall we?” Louis asked politely and pointed towards the car. He opened the back door for Harry, and then went around and got in on the other side.

“I’m Harry, Harry Styles.” Harry introduced himself, shifting Sebastian in his arms so that he could shake Louis’ hand.

“My name is Louis Tomlinson, and I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for days. Don't you ever look at your IG messages? _'you flower you feast'_?" Harry frowned and shook his head bashfully. "Well whatever, that'll be something that I have to remember for the future", Louis wrote on an imaginary checklist clearly continuing to tease Harry. "But boy am I glad I finally found you.” Louis smiled and then looked down as Harry threaded his fingers through Louis' right hand to hold.

Louis looked down at their clasped hands, feeling himself gasp in realization once again that these were the hands that he had dreamed about for so long. The hands of his soulmate.

**********************************************************************

**AUTUMN:**

Niall watched fondly as Harry and Louis played with Sebastian on the floor of their living room. They’d told him this morning that they were considering moving into a new place together when each of their leases were up in November. Niall was happy for them and hoped that they found a place close to here so that they could still hang out as much as they had been doing. Niall knew that Harry worried about him being alone but Niall knew he’d be fine. But he had to be honest with himself; he’d been missing Hailee far more than he could have imagined. His heart actually felt like a part of it was missing; he felt hollow and empty. Maybe he just needed more iron like Harry had said. Niall left Harry and Louis still playing with their rabbit and went to his room to try and finish the song that he’d been writing for the past month. He was between song engineering jobs at the recording studio and his boss was going to let him record a few song demos that he could use to possibly sell songs to potential clients. But the song that was currently stuck in Niall’s head, that he was struggling to fully capture on the page or in a recording booth was going to be just for him. He supposed he was really writing it for Hailee. He missed her so much. She had kept her promise and kept in touch with him on a weekly call, and frequently emailed and texted Niall beyond that. Still, Niall knew that she was living an exciting life in New York City and he knew that he had most likely lost her to the glitz and glamour of a performer’s life.

Niall worked on the song until well past midnight, finally happy with the finished product about an hour before the sun was scheduled to rise. He sighed and stretched his arms above his head, feeling his back crack. Suddenly a feeling overtook Niall, and he stood up abruptly feeling faint for a moment before frantically looking for his wallet and quickly digging out the credit card that his parents had given him for “emergencies”. Niall scoffed at the thought that his mom would probably be angry when she got the bill, but Niall didn’t care; if what he was about to do didn’t constitute an emergency, he didn’t know what did.

********************************************************************************

Hailee entered the back of the theater through the loading entrance with two of her castmates from the show. They’d been given a long lunch break because the director had a meeting with some promoters and the three friends had taken advantage of their long break in the middle of the day. Hailee had even had a glass of wine because Kathy had gotten a bottle for the table and their waiter hadn’t bothered to card Hailee. So she was pleasantly buzzed as they made their way back inside of the auditorium to resume rehearsal. As they approached the doors to the first aisle, Hailee could hear a piano playing but didn’t recognize the melody as being something from their show. Kathy and Rob opened the doors laughing loudly about a story that Rob was in the middle of telling, and Hailee saw several other members of their cast turn around in their seats to see where the commotion was coming from, but Hailee was distracted by the shocking sight and sounds in front of her coming from the stage.

 

 

 

 

> _Looking back through changes where we started from_
> 
> _Don't know about you but I knew it wasn't wrong_
> 
> _You know I kept a place for you in my mind_
> 
> _And I know you did the same 'cause you're just that kind_

Hailee couldn’t believe it! Niall was there; he was right in front of her, singing. Singing a beautiful song. Had she ever known that Niall could sing so well? She felt stupid not knowing this fact. As she approached the stage, Niall saw her and gave her a small smile, continuing on with the chorus of his song.

 

 

 

 

> _So if we knew all along_
> 
> _Why did it take so long?_
> 
> _We’ve known since we were young_
> 
> _So why did it take so long?_
> 
> _You know you make me feel loved_
> 
> _Make me feel like I’m home_
> 
> _So if we knew all along_
> 
> _Why did it take so long?_

Hailee felt her heart pumping fast and the blood rushing through her ears, yet it still wasn’t so loud that she couldn’t hear Niall’s lilting voice above it all.

 

 

 

 

> _Now we've got to make up for all the wasted time_
> 
> _You know I'd never let you just walk on by_
> 
> _From the day that I met you I knew you'd be mine, yeah_
> 
> _So if we knew all along_
> 
> _Why did it take so long?_
> 
> _We've known since we were young_
> 
> _So why did it take so long?_
> 
> _You know you make me feel loved_
> 
> _Make me feel like I'm home_
> 
> _So if we knew all along_
> 
> _Why did it take so long?_

By the time that Niall had sung and played his last note, Hailee was standing next to his piano bench staring at him with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. Niall stood up and Hailee fell into his arms, hugging him fiercely.

 

**EPILOGUE:**

Louis and Harry sat comfortably side by side in their bed under the handmade quilt that Louis’ mom and sisters had made them as a gift to celebrate their first Christmas together, and Louis moving into Harry’s apartment. Louis had happily given up his apartment to move in with Harry, after a brief idea that the two of them might move in with Liam and Zayn into the house that they’d just bought in Sheperd’s Bush. It was a fixer-upper that they’d decided to bite the bullet in purchasing because of the huge potential in return on their investment. The house was as close to posh Notting Hill as you could get but still be in Sheperd’s Bush, and would probably be worth a pretty penny once Liam and Zayn got done fixing it up. But who knew how long that would take and Louis had been too stressed out thinking about all four of them crammed into the three decent rooms in the house and it always being a construction zone. Liam and Zayn could have it, and obviously loved it, but it was too much stress for Louis and he was happy because he’d recently been able to wean himself off of his anxiety medication. Gone were their weighted blankets; the comfort of sleeping together enough to alleviate all anxiety, although Louis still kept his 15lb blanket for when he traveled alone and missed Harry. Their rabbit Sebastian was sound asleep on his back between them. Harry finished reading something on his iPad and handed it to Louis, who put the book he was skimming down on his nightstand and took the tablet to see an email from Niall.

It had been almost 8 months since Niall had up and moved to New York City to be with Hailee. Eight months in which Hailee had become the newest belle of Broadway, turned 18 and soul-bonded with Niall officially, and found a lovely apartment in the East Village to live with Niall. Niall had struggled to find a job and had instead focused on setting up and taking care of their apartment, and of Hailee while she made her successful Broadway debut. But now Niall was writing to tell Harry and Louis that unbelievably he had landed a sound engineering job at the legendary Germano Studios in Manhattan. The Rolling Stones to Beyonce had recorded albums there, and Niall was telling them that he was going to have a chance to work on John Mayer’s next album.

Louis smiled as he closed out of the email and turned off the iPad. Harry had picked up his latest knitting project and was quietly working away on what seemed to Louis to be a pretty intricate pattern; the clicking of his wooden needles a comforting sound to Louis. Louis scooted down and turned so that he was laying on his side facing Harry. He stared at his soulmate’s hands working the needles and felt himself blushing. Harry’s hands were still an incredible turn-on for Louis; maybe even more so now that he had the real thing and didn’t need to fantasize about them anymore. He knew what those amazing hands and fingers could do. Now as he watched Harry creating something that looked like another jumper in a pretty color of blue, Louis hoped that it was for him. Of course he had all of the cozy, comfy sweaters that he could ask for now that he and Harry were together, including his favorite cotton lilac one that Harry had basically reclaimed as his own, and the gorgeous intarsia jumper that Harry had given Louis for his birthday, and which he only wore on very special occasions. Harry’s hands stopped their motions and he looked down fondly at Louis over the tops of his readers. Louis looked back up at him and smiled; he was so glad that he got his happy ending.

 

 FIN

 

 


End file.
